For in vitro studies, cells were cultured in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 10% FBS (GIBCO, Thermo Fisher Scientific, MA, USA) in presence of increasing dose of ATP (Sigma Aldrich, Germany) and ARA-C (Sigma Aldrich). In some experiments, cells were pre-treated for 30 min at 37°C with 10 μM AZ 10606120, a P2×7R specific antagonist (Tocris, Bristol, United Kingdom).
The pH of ATP solution was adjusted to 6.8 using NaOH for both in vitro and in vivo experiments.
The research was approved by the Ethics Committee of Policlinico S.Orsola-Malpighi, University Hospital of Bologna and each individual gave written informed consent (Ethical Committee approval code: 147/2013/O/Tess).